by jill dewey hawkins

MFT Summer School

Happy Summer! My friend Jen suggested we get our Summer School on and participate in the MFT Summer School series. I thought it was a great idea and I was game, as I always love a challenge! 🙂You can Join in the fun HERE. I think there is still several days left to participate. You don’t have to do them all, by any means.

I dug into my MFT archives of well used stamps and dies and pulled out some for these projects. I had fun making them all and enjoyed the challenges. On with the cards, yes?!

For this card, I used one of my favorite Birdie Brown stamps off all time from the Polynesian Paradise set. I also used the Stripes Cover Up and the Four Way Chevron Cover up (embossed). I inlaid the strips to create subtle texture for the white space. White space rules! 🙂

Primary Colors–Red, Yellow and Blue…

For this card, I used the London Mouse set and the Amazing set for the sentiment. Added some Kuretake watercolors for the background and fussy cut the mice. out. I thought this turned out fun!

I love repetition, but even more, I enjoy simplicity. It’s always hard to know if something is too simple or just enough. Especially after you’ve been looking at too long. LOL! My rule of thumb: Walk away! If you’re debating, it’s usually best to walk away. 🙂

The black and white of these pandas is perfection for this. The biggest debate was what color to make the sign! 😉 This set is called Happy Pandas and the dies are the old school version (they are solid and not cut out) which was funny to go back and figure out again. 😉

For Complementary Colors, I chose to go with Green and “Red”, aka, Pink. 🙂

This dino is from the set You’re Rawr-some! Love that sentiment! 🙂 I watercolored the dino with my Kuretake watercolors (a bit too solidly for my taste). Still not sure I like this look, but it’s good to try something different once in awhile, right?

For this one, I went with these cutie Koalas colored with Copic Markers! Back to my comfort zone. 😉

This set is called Cuddly Koalas. I also used the Chunky Herringbone stencil, Stitched Rectangle Frame and Grassy Field die. Cute cute!

Be sure to check out the My Favorite Things Challenge & Inspiration blog for all the Sketch Challenges and Color Challenges!!Thanks for popping by! Thank you for all the great comments this week–very appreciated! Hope to see you again soon 🙂

Color Saturation – The intensity of color. The more white or gray that’s added, the less saturated the color becomes. Cards tend to work best when the saturation of the colors are on a similar scale.

Here is my card: I squealed with delight when I finished. You do that too sometimes right? 😉

I definitely lean toward the bright/darker colors rather than the muted ones. I am often in awe of people who use the lighter colors successfully. I love these saturated colors together! 🙂

I die cut the new Four Way Chevron Cover-up several times and pieced together. Then I die cut that panel with the Stripes cover-up and pieced that together. Crazy clapping ensued. You just never know what things are going to look like and I do not enjoy wasting time. LOL 🙂 This delights me ever so very much!

If you missed my cards from earlier lessons this week, you can click on these links: Monday & Tuesday & Wednesday (<–Including the new Sketch Challenge!)

Today’s Lesson: Hard vs. soft – For every hard line or edge you place on a card, the design is balanced by some softness, whether it be from a texture (like a ribbon) or a shape (like a circle); too much hard or soft might not work.

Here’s my take on this lesson:

It is definitely a literal take on this lesson, being that I used soft felt and all 😉 But my thinking was the angles added an edge.If you missed my cards from earlier lessons this week, you can click on these links: Monday & Tuesday. Find me on Instagram here: jilldhawkins

Be sure to check out the My Favorite Things Challenge & Inspiration blog for all the Sketch Challenges and Color Challenges!!Thanks for popping by! Stop by tomorrow for the new MFT Sketch Challenge and my take on the next lesson!

Here is my card for today: I watercolored again 🙂 After I dry embossed the Jumbo Dot Cover Up, I watercolored random dots. Then I added some white dots, because it needed a little smidgen of something… 🙂The My Favorite Things blog is where you can link to the other amazing cards…and learn how to WIN some goodies! 🙂